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Bid to end Vat on ebooks may save readers millions

AN ATTEMPT to force the government to scrap Vat on ebooks is to be mounted by a leading City law firm in a landmark case against HM Revenue & Customs.

If successful, the case could save British book readers millions of pounds a year. It would also force the European commission into a climbdown over its ruling last week that Luxembourg and France must charge their standard Vat rate on ebooks, rather than a reduced rate.

Ebooks in Britain are taxed at the standard rate of 20%, but printed books are zero-rated. Britain negotiated the retention of this zero rating when it joined the European Union in 1973 but ebooks, introduced years later, attract the standard rate.

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), the law firm, will argue that charging different rates on print books and ebooks breaches EU law on “fiscal neutrality”. It has been given permission to challenge the taxman on behalf